3 Spring Projects for Green Fingered Kids

Does your little darling love all things dirty, wormy, wiggly and garden-based? Last week we suggested a few ideas to encourage your young ‘uns to get outside and enjoy the spring, but what if your kids are already keen nature lovers? We’ve put together 3 fun, gardening projects for green-fingered kids to get stuck into.

1. Grow Great Big Sunflowers

What could be more exciting that watching your sunflower shoot up and up and…up!? The best bit is working to be the winner of the ‘biggest sunflower’ competition, perfect for getting siblings, friends and even whole classes involved.

You can plant sunflowers in pots inside in March, or outside in late April – but make sure you plant a few. They can grow to maturity in pots, or survive just as well in the ground but sadly sunflowers are the breakfast, lunch and dinner du jour of hungry slugs and snails. To give you and your young gardener the best chance of sunflower success, plant lots and lots of seeds.

If you want to grow whoppers, the biggest variety are the Russian Giants which you’ll find in any garden centre. Once your sunflowers get going, you’ll need to support them with canes and some string to give them some much needed backbone.

2. Grow Your Own Pumpkin

For a longer term project (which will also prevent you from getting ripped off in the supermarket when Halloween comes around!), mid-April is the ideal time to get your young gardener to plant a pumpkin or two! Atlantic Giant varieties will give you a nice, big Halloween-sized pumpkin but there are lots of other interesting and often tasty versions to choose from.

Plant in a sunny spot, with a 2 metre circle to grow in. Once the baby pumpkin has started to grow, chop off any new growing shoots and tips to make sure all of the plant’s energy goes in to growing a great big orange pumpkin! Make sure you pick it before the miserable autumn rain kicks in.

3. GYO Pesto!

What could be tastier than growing your own pesto? If this sounds tricky, don’t worry, you’ll only need to grow yummy basil. This project is also perfect for keen, green-fingered kids who don’t have a garden for growing in – basil does just as well on a sunny windowsill.

Ocimum basilicum Genovese (sweet basil) is the most consistent and reliable variety. Simply pop 9 seeds in an 8cm pot. Once they start growing, weed out the weakest seedlings to leave the 3 strongest plants. Once your basil is fully grown you’ll need two handfuls of leaves to pound in a pestle and mortar with garlic, olive oil, pine kernels and Parmesan.